When to focus on armor?

[Arsalaan]

So as the title says, I'm just looking at what armor pieces I should look at, or if I should not be worried about this at the place I am at right now

So I'm fairly new to the game, I've just done the Nergigante quest on the elders recess, and now I'm having to track down some tracks (black diablos? Some other things?) and the armor set I currently use is Legiana LR armor, about 34 armor per piece. Is this good enough for the stage I am at in the game? I believe it may be best mix and matching armors to reduce grind and maximise damage, I use a defender longsword current on white sharpness, but have built an thunder bone katana because the defender seemed quite strong for the easier tasks.

Any advice or input would be appreciated, I am also looking to learn a new weapon type but being only 40 hours in, it may be too soon? I'm loving LS but SA and especially Hammer seem to call to me.

[DaBa]

If you're planning to play the game all the way to the expansion content. then don't worry too much about the armor. You should've noticed that when you switched to High Rank all low rank armor gets replaced with High rank counterparts. The same will happen when you get to master rank, all your high rank armor will become irrelevant very fast.

That means that for now all you really need to focus on is defence. If you're struggling, just craft whatever you can to get higher defence so you can survive more easily. That's it. Then, later when you unlock master rank armors you can start worrying more about armor skills as these are the armor pieces that will stay with you until the very end.

[Arsalaan]

Originally posted by DaBa:

If you're planning to play the game all the way to the expansion content. then don't worry too much about the armor. You should've noticed that when you switched to High Rank all low rank armor gets replaced with High rank counterparts. The same will happen when you get to master rank, all your high rank armor will become irrelevant very fast.

That means that for now all you really need to focus on is defence. If you're struggling, just craft whatever you can to get higher defence so you can survive more easily. That's it. Then, later when you unlock master rank armors you can start worrying more about armor skills as these are the armor pieces that will stay with you until the very end.

I appreciate the response. This is the advice I thought I'd get, I did notice the HR armors and was contemplating getting azure rath parts for more damage but I should wait for Master Rank ideally.

If I am struggling, I do switch over to the Defender armor which is 50 armor per set, makes the game a lot easier so I have decided against upgrading it at all for the time being..

In terms of weapons advice, if I was to switch to a hammer style, would I still be able to upgrade the defender hammer or did I use those tickets on LS and can't use on other weapons now?

[Nikolaier]

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

In terms of weapons advice, if I was to switch to a hammer style, would I still be able to upgrade the defender hammer or did I use those tickets on LS and can't use on other weapons now?

If need be, you should be able to downgrade the LS to get a refund for the necessary materials.

I'm personally not a fan of using the defender gear as I believe it breeds bad habits, but considering how far along you are right now it won't be relevant for too much longer anyways as there are no upgrades for the defender gear in master rank.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

Originally posted by DaBa:

If you're planning to play the game all the way to the expansion content. then don't worry too much about the armor. You should've noticed that when you switched to High Rank all low rank armor gets replaced with High rank counterparts. The same will happen when you get to master rank, all your high rank armor will become irrelevant very fast.

That means that for now all you really need to focus on is defence. If you're struggling, just craft whatever you can to get higher defence so you can survive more easily. That's it. Then, later when you unlock master rank armors you can start worrying more about armor skills as these are the armor pieces that will stay with you until the very end.

I appreciate the response. This is the advice I thought I'd get, I did notice the HR armors and was contemplating getting azure rath parts for more damage but I should wait for Master Rank ideally.

If I am struggling, I do switch over to the Defender armor which is 50 armor per set, makes the game a lot easier so I have decided against upgrading it at all for the time being..

In terms of weapons advice, if I was to switch to a hammer style, would I still be able to upgrade the defender hammer or did I use those tickets on LS and can't use on other weapons now?

If you're using LR armor still, then that is why you're struggling, A difference in survivability between a low rank and high rank armor set is massive. You don't need to use Defender armor to make things easier, just craft one of the "generic" armor sets you get access every other rarity level. If you're already past nergigante, you should have access to Dober and Damascus armor sets, these are crafted with bones and ores, so materials that are generic and very easy to farm. They should also provide some decent armor skills as a bonus. But, most importantly, a massive boost to defence which will help you survive way more attacks.

One thing that will help you a lot right now too is if you can manage to get yourself a Level 3 Health Boost armor skill, it should be very easy to do from matching a few high rank armor pieces (or from decorations that you might already have) and it will boost your survivability even further,

[Arsalaan]

Originally posted by Nikolaier:

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

In terms of weapons advice, if I was to switch to a hammer style, would I still be able to upgrade the defender hammer or did I use those tickets on LS and can't use on other weapons now?

If need be, you should be able to downgrade the LS to get a refund for the necessary materials.

I'm personally not a fan of using the defender gear as I believe it breeds bad habits, but considering how far along you are right now it won't be relevant for too much longer anyways as there are no upgrades for the defender gear in master rank.

You are right, because of the armour stat, you rarely lose hp so you find yourself positioning less, which is going to be bad news in iceborn. I just fought Teostra my second elden dragon and was carted 3times with defender armour and defender katana... I switched to a defender hammer and maxed it and finished the fight. HAMMER IS SO FUN. But LS feels more rewarding and also tail slices...

Originally posted by DaBa:

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

I appreciate the response. This is the advice I thought I'd get, I did notice the HR armors and was contemplating getting azure rath parts for more damage but I should wait for Master Rank ideally.

If I am struggling, I do switch over to the Defender armor which is 50 armor per set, makes the game a lot easier so I have decided against upgrading it at all for the time being..

In terms of weapons advice, if I was to switch to a hammer style, would I still be able to upgrade the defender hammer or did I use those tickets on LS and can't use on other weapons now?

If you're using LR armor still, then that is why you're struggling, A difference in survivability between a low rank and high rank armor set is massive. You don't need to use Defender armor to make things easier, just craft one of the "generic" armor sets you get access every other rarity level. If you're already past nergigante, you should have access to Dober and Damascus armor sets, these are crafted with bones and ores, so materials that are generic and very easy to farm. They should also provide some decent armor skills as a bonus. But, most importantly, a massive boost to defence which will help you survive way more attacks.

One thing that will help you a lot right now too is if you can manage to get yourself a Level 3 Health Boost armor skill, it should be very easy to do from matching a few high rank armor pieces (or from decorations that you might already have) and it will boost your survivability even further,

I actually saw the HR armor and considered building the generic ones made from bones and leveling those up for the time being. Health boost is important and i will start looking at mixing up sets to get higher armour.

I gotta say, I haven't struggled so far, Nergigante was fine, but Teostra was definitely my biggest challenge so far.

I will remove the defender gear, and look into forging some LS and Hammers that aren't so OP. Any advice on good weapons for LS and hammer that isn't a mega grind? I assume status effects aren't ideal on LS or Hammer?

[Cathulhu]

On LS it's more useful than Hammer, but generally, just go for Raw damage.
Some elemental when you're done with the story.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

. Any advice on good weapons for LS and hammer that isn't a mega grind? I assume status effects aren't ideal on LS or Hammer?

They are not ideal, just like elemental damage is not ideal either on both of these weapons. You could even say they are borderline useless since you can just bring a Palico with a corresponding status and that will be enough to get a status proc on it's own. Or even a negative so if you consider having an element or status on those weapons = not being able to use non-elemental boost armor skill, which is a considerable increase to your damage for a single 2 slot decoration and will almost always be more worth it than any status or element on those weapons in particular.

As for which weapon to go with for now, if you REALLY want to avoid grinding then just get the final upgrade from the ore tree. It's actually pretty decent and will be more than enough to take you to the end of HR content. If you want to go a step above that, basic Nergigante weapons are really good for how easy they are to get. You get good raw, a lot of blue sharpness, and elderseal as a bonus.

[DaBa]

Also if you go for the nergigante weapon, you can do a neat trick when you reach master rank. You can roll back the nergigante upgrade back to the main ore tree, and then you upgrade straight to the master rank ore tree which will give you a really good start into MR quests. As for when you get into Master rank proper, I have two recommendations:

- For the hammer I strongly recommend the Master Rank Kuluyaku tree, it has incredible stats compared to anything else at that point and the final upgrade is actually so good you can take it all the way to the end of the story missions. It's actually really weird how powerful that weapon is for how easy and how early you can craft it, especially considering it's just a Kuluyaku tree, not some elder dragon or other high ranked monster.

- For the Long Sword I don't feel there are any big standouts in master rank story progression like for the hammer, just pick whatever suits your fancy. There is one, pretty nice option that I like (partially for nostalgic reasons), but I won't talk about it because it's a spoiler for a monster you've not seen before.

[Bobucles]

Every 80 defense rating is effectively another full health bar.
If you can find a well rounded set with another 20-40 points of armor, do it. There is always better farming opportunities in the future.

[Anoyun?]

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

So as the title says, I'm just looking at what armor pieces I should look at, or if I should not be worried about this at the place I am at right now

So I'm fairly new to the game, I've just done the Nergigante quest on the elders recess, and now I'm having to track down some tracks (black diablos? Some other things?) and the armor set I currently use is Legiana LR armor, about 34 armor per piece. Is this good enough for the stage I am at in the game? I believe it may be best mix and matching armors to reduce grind and maximise damage, I use a defender longsword current on white sharpness, but have built an thunder bone katana because the defender seemed quite strong for the easier tasks.

Any advice or input would be appreciated, I am also looking to learn a new weapon type but being only 40 hours in, it may be too soon? I'm loving LS but SA and especially Hammer seem to call to me.

well that depends on your playstyle and on how good are you already in the game. keep getting carted? go for defensive skill. like health boost and divine blessing, want dps get wex and attack boost and crit eye. well build at where are you now in the game is almost non existent. you can just make the full armor set and it can carry you to almost at the endgame of the base game.

[Definively Not Alchman]

the more you kill a monster the better you get at killing it. and killing monsters is all there is to this game.
so just go and make everything you find interesting, experiment, find what works for you, have fun. there is no end goal here

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Consider using Defender or Guardian armour sets, as its purposefully overpowered and has a good selection of skills. The defence will last you through all of LR and most of HR. Once you get to MR, THEN it's worth taking the time to hunt specific monsters for armour skills.

[Feto]

Depends on what you want or how you play.
Monsters hitting to hard? upgrade your armor (if it has very low defense compared to the things you are currently hunting) and look for pieces with Health Boost and Evasion/Guard skills.
Hunts taking too long? look for pieces with offensive skills, mostly Weakness Exploit or Critical Eye.
Keep in mind that your character will most likely look like ass with all the mixed pieces of armor, lol. If you care about that then look for a set with decent skills and just use that.

[Lain]

reasons why guardian armour is good early is because of the amount of Defence it provides + health boost + Divine blessing

about the time you start fighting nergi the equipment that becomes available to you will be able to compete with it
you can come across health and divine blessing deco's fairly reasonably early on compared to others too, they are pretty comfortable to have at any stage of the game

[Arsalaan]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Originally posted by Arsalaan:

. Any advice on good weapons for LS and hammer that isn't a mega grind? I assume status effects aren't ideal on LS or Hammer?

They are not ideal, just like elemental damage is not ideal either on both of these weapons. You could even say they are borderline useless since you can just bring a Palico with a corresponding status and that will be enough to get a status proc on it's own. Or even a negative so if you consider having an element or status on those weapons = not being able to use non-elemental boost armor skill, which is a considerable increase to your damage for a single 2 slot decoration and will almost always be more worth it than any status or element on those weapons in particular.

As for which weapon to go with for now, if you REALLY want to avoid grinding then just get the final upgrade from the ore tree. It's actually pretty decent and will be more than enough to take you to the end of HR content. If you want to go a step above that, basic Nergigante weapons are really good for how easy they are to get. You get good raw, a lot of blue sharpness, and elderseal as a bonus.

I don't mind some grind to be honest, for example I liked the effects of the Legiana armor, and the look, so I happily farmed that monster.
At one point I also wanted to check out lightning element on a LS, so I farmed the Tobi Kadachi for one and didn't mind the experience. But these monsters are very easy to deal with...

Now having used the hammer, I feel like Barroth and Diablos etc are easier to deal with so that's one line of tree i could consider for sure. I don't mind fighting Rathian either, as long as other mons don't jump in.

As a new player i do find the upgrade tree for weapons to be very weird compared to most games, takes a bit of getting used to... I will look into the Ore tree because I have not done anything with that line yet.

Originally posted by DaBa:

Also if you go for the nergigante weapon, you can do a neat trick when you reach master rank. You can roll back the nergigante upgrade back to the main ore tree, and then you upgrade straight to the master rank ore tree which will give you a really good start into MR quests. As for when you get into Master rank proper, I have two recommendations:

- For the hammer I strongly recommend the Master Rank Kuluyaku tree, it has incredible stats compared to anything else at that point and the final upgrade is actually so good you can take it all the way to the end of the story missions. It's actually really weird how powerful that weapon is for how easy and how early you can craft it, especially considering it's just a Kuluyaku tree, not some elder dragon or other high ranked monster.

- For the Long Sword I don't feel there are any big standouts in master rank story progression like for the hammer, just pick whatever suits your fancy. There is one, pretty nice option that I like (partially for nostalgic reasons), but I won't talk about it because it's a spoiler for a monster you've not seen before.

Whoa fantastic advice, I may do this if the weapon is good, for maybe both the LS and the Hammer...

hey man i dont mind spoilers of monsters, i just avoid watching the cut scenes or fight scenes with them, so which LS? No idea which ones offer good raw damage and sharpness, the defender katana is so goooooood